How to develop strong faith

Although faith in GOD is the greatest type of faith everyone should acquire, faith in one’s self is very important and necessary in many areas of life. And to those who think developing faith in one’s self is wrong, the best answer I’ll give is the one my greatest role model Jesus Christ gave after his—then—faithless disciples couldn’t heal a boy who was possessed by an unclean spirit; Mark 9:23 says: “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”.

Good enough, faith is not a respecter of persons or religions; rather, it’s there for anybody and there for the taking. Faith is something that has to be cultivated and properly taken care of until (and even after) it matures and produces great works and wonders.

We can observe that despite the close relationship Jesus had with his disciples, they (only the disciples) were not able to cast out demons that possessed a boy whose father earlier brought him to the disciples; read Mark 9:18 which says: “… and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not”.

Definition of faith

Faith can be defined as complete trust or confidence in GOD, someone or something. It can also be defined as deep belief in religious doctrines based on inner spiritual conviction rather than physical proof. Faith is usually planted firmly in the heart, and is mostly strengthened on the basis of things that can’t be seen, rather than things that can be seen.

One of my best definitions of faith that supports the previous sentence, can be seen in Hebrews 11:6 of the Christian Bible which states: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Contrary to this definition, we can easily observe that too many people need physical proof in order to strengthen their faith, and this is not the right way to develop faith.

Faith can either be positive or negative, and can shift between extremely positive and extremely negative limits. Each person has a certain amount of faith which can become more positive or negative, depending on how they cultivate it, especially when they face the ups and downs of life. Negative faith works against people, while positive faith works in favor of people, and each person will get results in life based on their faith, or what they deeply believe in: “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”―Proverbs 23:7.

How strong faith can be developed

(1) By regularly cultivating quietude or stillness

One of the best foundations for developing faith and unfolding more of the subconscious mind power or spirit is stillness, or quietude which leads calmness or composure—the ability to be composed or relaxed regardless of the challenges and anxieties experienced in life. Our almighty creator says in Psalm 46: 10―“Be still, and know that I am God …”. The lesson in this scripture is that the onus of being still or calm is on us, and depends a lot on the best we can do to control our thinking so that our inner being will be still or calm to as great an extent as possible. One way to do this is to regularly practice quietude, composure or stillness, and seeing our challenges in a more relaxed or better perspective.

One illustration that can be practiced each day is to imagine you’re a great leader and your mind is a working place that has a lot of noisy thoughts as workers who are always obedient to your commands—even if at the moment it doesn’t appear so. (As one practices regularly, one would start to see the results when noisy thoughts become more and more controllable till they actually become quiet.) Now, whenever you’ve made up your mind to keep noisy thoughts under your control, tell these workers that work is over, and you want them to close work and keep quiet so that you can instill some sense of calm that would benefit the whole environment or mind in which they work.

When practicing this, positive results might not be seen early on, but if one consistently practices quieting their thoughts every now and then—if possible daily—especially in a quiet place, one would observe that they are gradually beginning to be more composed, able to control their thoughts more, and switch off the endless noisy thoughts that jump into their mind whenever they like. But the problem is that too many people have become so accustomed to concentrating on noisy distractible thoughts to such an extent that they have no time to cultivate qualities like quietude, stillness or composure which are strong foundations for faith in the subconscious mind or spirit.

People are too busy bothering about the next lottery, the next presidential election, the next big movie on TV, what they would like to wear the next day, etc.—and they bother to such a point that they have no time to concentrate on the things that really matter. Note that that every mundane daily activity is to some extent completely trivial because they won’t matter in a few days or years from now; but many years from now, it will matter to you how you cultivate stillness and quietude today.

No man or woman can successfully apply faith by harboring thoughts of worry or anxiety; yet every man and woman can use stillness, or quietude—which instills calmness—as a firm foundation for the development and stability of their faith.

It could be very harmful for those who desire to develop faith if they consistently worry and get involved in negative discussions that can make them cultivate negative faith instead of positive faith.

Why not practice for about 30 minutes every day. Practice sitting or lying down comfortably and peacefully—and remember you must stay in a way that wouldn’t make you feel discomfort on any part of your body. Let your mind become still. Remember: “Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46: 10) is one saying; another saying that’s relevant to this post is: “Be still and know that you have strong faith within”.

If you can practice making your mind free of thoughts, worries, anxieties and doubts, then you will observe that in a month’s time you’ll be more still, calm, poised, uplifted, and quite a different person. Some people are not conscious of noisy thoughts, but noisy thoughts do exist, and can negatively affect faith, emotional and mental well-being—if not properly controlled.

(2) By regularly feeding on positivity

Naturally, depending on our past experiences, background and present experiences, faith could become more positive or negative. That’s why it’s important for faith to be nourished and cultivated in much the same way as a habit. Faith must be pampered, fed and carefully looked after, when feeding on positivity or persistent positive thoughts.

Also, if we want to continue developing faith, we must always be positive and repeat or re-affirm what we believe in until we obtain faith; we must re-affirm what we believe in till our beliefs are driven into our sub-conscious minds or spirits which are the greater parts of us. The sub-conscious mind, which is shielded away from all the noise that usually occupies the conscious mind, is the greater part of us which can work with our faith to produce great results.

Keep on repeating what you believe until it becomes driven or implanted in your sub-conscious, and then you will have automatic faith. Faith is not belief. Faith is something which usually grows or diminishes with us. Many of us are Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, or Jews because our parents are/were Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, or Jews.

For many of us, we believe that what our parents believed was right, so our faith developed based on what our parents believed. But sometimes this type of faith diminishes when people get older and become exposed to other more convincing types of belief—one can see the difference between faith and belief in this illustration.

No matter how difficult things might appear to be, always tell yourself that you will overcome and achieve this or that—or that you firmly believe you will do this or that. You have to keep on re-affirming it or else you might not develop faith that could lead to greatness. Faith becomes automatic when we consistently believe in something in a positive way, again and again until it sinks into our subconscious minds.

In much the same vein, if you repeat prayers time after time, then there would come a time when you would sub-consciously start to believe in them until the day your wishes come true.

The main work lies in convincing your subconscious mind to understand and cooperate. And once you’ve implanted that belief-turned-into-faith in your subconscious mind, then you don’t have to bother anymore because your sub-conscious mind will always remind your consciousness/conscious mind that you have faith, and you can do those particular things.

Even though there are many things you don’t have sufficient faith to do today, it doesn’t mean it’s over for you for the rest of your life. Keep on telling yourself with positive words and mind pictures that you believe one day you are going to do this or that, or whatever it is you would like to do in future; then in time, you will do it/them.

All successful people, those who become exceptional researchers, millionaires and inventors are people who have faith in themselves; they have faith that they can do whatever they conceive in their minds. This is as a result of the fact that they believed in their abilities and powers first, then by consistently believing in themselves, they generated the faith which made their initial beliefs come true.

If you keep on telling yourself that you are going to succeed, you will succeed; however, you will only succeed if you keep on being positive and calm and re-affirming success, and not allow doubt or negativity step in. Always declare success, and the results that will come may surprise you.

Things that affect faith—and which we should take note of

When developing faith, there are things one should take note of:

all of us have certain fears: some people are afraid of the dark, others are afraid of spiders or something, etc.

some of us might either be aware or unaware of our fears: we have fears which are in our conscious minds, but our conscious minds are only about ten per cent of our whole minds, while the remaining ninety per cent of our minds are sub-conscious. Now, the problem is that the fear in most people is in their sub-conscious minds.

sometimes we do things under unidentified compulsion, or we decide not to do things because of an unidentified compulsion: we don’t understand the reason why we are able to do certain things or why we are unable to do certain things. There is no reason on the surface: there is nothing that we can relate our decisions to. In fact, if we visit a psychologist, we might be surprised to find out that we have a certain fear, or are unable to do certain things because of something(s) that happened to us (coupled with other influences on our vulnerable belief systems) when we were younger.

the reason for fear or inability to do certain things is usually hidden from our awareness or consciousness (conscious minds) and works against us or nags at us from our subconscious minds in which fear been implanted by virtue of always believing in fear and thinking about it over and over.

negative faith or fear doesn’t have to be conscious to be active. It is most active and uncontrollable when it is subconscious.

throughout our lifetimes, we have been subjected to certain experiences. A person from an Islamic background would have always believed in what they’ve been taught, or that certain things are forbidden; on the other hand, people of a different religion, with different belief systems, would have been permitted to do things not permitted in the Islamic religion.

In relation to the point highlighted above, when it comes to the issue of faith, we have to evaluate how we were brought up—our past experiences, religious and family backgrounds, etc. Everyone would agree that if we grew up with people who possessed superhuman abilities, we would likely have been influenced by them, and consistently believed in ourselves until we developed faith to display superhuman feats. The opposite would likely occur too, if we grew up with people who possessed subhuman powers, or no power at all.

Faith can topple an empire, and faith can build an empire as well. If you develop your faith by pampering it, guiding and controlling it, then it’s true that you can have almost anything. If you are yet to acquire faith, then you can’t obtain faith or make it work by dictating to it. It’s not possible to force faith to work because faith is like a horse: you can lead a horse to a stream to drink water but you can’t force it to drink—and so you can lead your faith by developing it gradually, but you cannot force it to appear suddenly. It needs to be developed, and it can be done.

Advice

How are you going to develop your faith? Well, it’s only a matter of practice. Think of a situation that makes you fear and then overcome it with faith by telling yourself each time that you can do it even if others can’t. Persuade yourself until you get your subconscious mind or spirit working on your side.

Remember that it might not happen in an hour, a day, a week or even years, but eventually it will happen: Rome was not built in a day, and doctors, professors or scientists are not made overnight. They had to consistently believe and study to succeed, and so have you. There is no other easy or painless way out!

Always practice stillness, quietude and calmness, and remember that all these petty challenges and problems that interrupt our thoughts whenever we are trying to think, work or do something, will not matter in a few years’ time. They are little irritations that should be relegated to their correct status as side distractions, and nothing more.

Stillness, quietude, peace, inner composure and tranquillity are there for you if you will take time to cultivate them. All you have to do is consistently refuse to take the issues of life seriously, and always believe in yourself. Be calm, and always remember that all these challenges are minor irritations and nothing more. They were sent by nature to test you, and they certainly do!

Practice calmness and look at your difficulties in a much better perspective. It may be annoying to find that you cannot do certain things today, but it is not of earth-shaking importance after all; rather it would be more earth-shaking if you start or continue developing your faith from today.

I agree with you… if not for faith, many people would be completely stressed with discouragement because they wouldn’t be able to know or figure out details and the end of things from the beginning… but faith makes us see or figure out the end from the beginning and believe in it till it becomes reality…

I believe that faith is major in people life, regardless their religions and beliefs…Faith is very important and we are weak and we find hard to maintain faith when our life collapses, when we lose someone dear, when everything goes wrong so the stillness you spoke about is very important, this perspective we should love that God always knows better than we do and there’s a good reason for everything that happens good or bad! And we should really calm our mind and practice this peace of mind that will allow positivity to enter instead of the negativity we keep spreading sometimes so we can achieve the point of believing in our abilities and ourselves!
Thank you for sharing, I believe such posts should be divided so the people can really give them the true appreciation and the proper reading 🙂

Thanks for your enlightening comments, especially the one which states that “this peace of mind…will allow positivity to enter instead of the negativity… “. peace of mind will usher in positivity; also, negativity cant stay in any mind where peace exists…

if I got you correctly, the post should have been divided into 2, right? Maybe that’s what you meant to say: I actually thought about doing that, but for some months now, I’ve been writing with higher word count/search engines in mind: probably I’ve been influenced by my freelance writing background where most clients/site editors seem to believe with evidence that search engines are attracted to long-form content—say 1,500, 2000, 2,500, etc. words.

My pleasure, it was an interesting subject!
Peace of mind is what we all seek and crave I guess
Well it’s just my opinion and point of view; it’s your blog and your call to write the posts the way you want it of course, probably your approach is right as well.
Yes some blogger also told me once that it’s not an issue how long is the post. Everyone applies what’s suitable
About me I was convinced that people want you to read what they write but they read only few lines of your blog…few really read
Best of luck and have a good day

Thanks alot for your time and all your meaningfully observations… Honestly, I’ve thought about the fact that most people might be discouraged reading longer posts, but my freelancing experiences, especially with clients and website editors, have influenced me to make my posts a bit longer; seems an appreciable number of people who visit websites still like long posts, depending on their interests and needs… another thing is that I try to make each post as rich as possible; so this makes my post a bit longer… regardless, I appreciate your thoughts…

Thank you for your kind appreciation and as I said, it’s a matter of perspective not more, I’m sure there are plenty of people outside who enjoy reading regardless the posts length..
Best of luck always!

So many good words and wisdom, and you use many of my favorite Bible quotations. I suspect that waiting for physical evidence, i.e., miracles, before having faith is a slow process.

When my own life path foundered after many years on the tried-and-true treadmill, I asked the Lord about it and asked for direction. As if on cue, a new opportunity came my way that afternoon. I was not well qualified and first thought it was an error. But I remembered telling the Lord that I would go where He led me … my exact words were if He opened a door, I would walk through. Over my head, I spoke with the Lord again and said, if this is where I am to be, I need other skills. As if on cue …

This became my life-long habit, and with it, many opportunities to witness. Faith also grows quickly and with it fearlessness about facing life. For “If God is for us, who can be against us?” -Romans 8:31. Indeed, anything is possible.

Thanks for your thoughtful points and comments. I agree with you that waiting for physical evidence and miracles before acquiring faith, is slow—it could/can be really slow.

Also, I have to admit that in many instances, I had to ask God for directions whenever I had faith that didn’t pull strings the way I wanted: irrespective of my positivity and faith, I have always asked God for guidance because his thought/faith is not always our thoughts/faith. And his thoughts for us have a combination of greater material and spiritual benefits, unlike most of our thoughts which lean mostly on material gains.

In fact it has become my own lifelong habit to apply my faith and still asked God to make the best choice for me, and honestly this combination has been wonderful.

Another thing is that irrespective of what is going on in my life, I always practice calmness, stillness and positivity, and no matter the outcome of things (which is always positive and greater, although not always exactly as I wanted initially), I always get greater outcomes/results and simultaneously cultivate more calmness, positivity, and develop more relaxed emotions, and matured reactions to challenges.

Thank you for visiting, reading and making a thoughtful comment with great points.

Excellent, well-crafted article on faith, something that is needed in all lives. For myself, I follow no religion and yet I have absolute faith in God as the Source, as nature, as the cosmos, in and of each little and large thing in this world. Thank you for your words. You do inspire.

Barbara, thank you for your thoughtful response. I’m a Christian but completely believe that having faith in GOD (which is the real spirituality) is much more important than being a part of any religion. I appreciate the time you’ve taken to visit, read and make a positive remark about the post.

I love this and I am excited to share with a very special friend of mine as we sort through understanding different backgrounds/ religion in his case, pure faith undefined by religion in mine. You have expressed faith beautifully.
Thank you!

👏👏👏thanks a lot for your thoughtful and wise comment: “pure faith undefined by religion” —that was a well-coined term. also, I appreciate your positive remark regarding the post, and the time you’ve taken to visit, read, comment and share.

Hiya, I’m really glad I’ve found this info. Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossips and net and this is really annoying. A good blog with interesting content, that is what I need. Thanks for keeping this site, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can not find it.

thanks for your thoughtful and inspiring comment; I will always anticipate your visit… if you are interested in subscribing to updates of new posts, or newsletters, enter your email address & subscribe in the subscription box which can be seen at top or bottom of the right sidebar of any web page on this website… thank you…

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